Tuesday 04/12/07 Ian Brown @ Carling Academy, Glasgow

It’s perhaps unsurprising that a man who idolizes Muhammad Ali has proven so adept at rolling with any punches that his carer has dealt him. Even the fact this gig was originally scheduled for the vast SECC but then downgraded to the smaller, though still decent sized confines of the Carling Academy, does not seem to faze Ian Brown. “This place is better than the SECC anyway” he snaps, and the assembled throng of Madchester veterans and new converts to Brown roar in approval.

Of course, the reason for the adulation is that Brown has proved to be a great survivor, against all odds. That famous swagger is still in place, right from the start as the band are played on by a bagpiper  and carrying on all the way through to a chaotic surprise second encore. Never afraid to change and deviate from the norm, Brown’s music is something that is never consistent in style, save for that mumble of a vocal. ‘Sister Rose’ starts the gig on a high, a danceable stomping number that immediately gets pints flying through the air. The glorious sweeping guitar of ‘My Star’ follows, still one of the best things Brown has ever done.

Although Brown has a new album to promote, a hefty part of the set is devoted to his prior hits, with the likes of ‘Time Is My Everything’ a trumpet led joy. It’s perhaps just as well he concentrates on them, as of the material played from The World Is Yours most are disappointing, losing any subtlety to a sledgehammer and a nut approach, in both tunes and the at times clumsy lyrics. Not that his back catalogue is perfect either, the tedious groan of Noel Gallagher collaboration  ‘Keep What You Got’ could only be made more boring if Gallagher himself turned up, such is its bloke-rock dreariness.